AMP Rebellion (3 page)

I stood for several seconds, undecided about what to do before turning back towards the Alpha mall celebration. As I walked slowly along I began to picture some of the events that had transpired over the previous three years.

I had an image of the Colonel wielding his shotgun and barking out orders to his men. I felt intimidated as I thought of him looking me in the eye and again when he would get that evil grin. I then chuckled as I thought about some of Frig's recent sarcasm. I began to think that maybe I was just being paranoid. We had after all, just ended a war that had been raging for a thousand years.

My attention was soon averted back to the present time by two Grid soldiers standing in the hallway.

One of the soldiers spoke, "Sorry Sir. You can't go this way…. Special celebrations going on out in the mall. This area is closed for the time being. You will have to go back the way you came."

For a moment my mouth wanted to say that I was to be part of the party, but I held my tongue. "Is it true what they are saying about the war?"

The soldier smiled and leaned forward. "It sure sounds that way Sir. I..."

The second soldier cleared his throat in an obvious gesture to the first. "Sorry Sir. You will need to leave this area immediately."

As I began to turn I could hear the sound of combat boots marching in a hurried fashion in the other direction. I made my way back to the shooting range and helped myself to two 9mm pistols and several boxes of ammo. If caught with the weapons I knew I faced certain prison time, but I wasn’t sure that prison time was not already coming my way. By the looks of the troops that were heading towards the mall, I guessed the party might be ending early for the Ghouls.

My first instinct was to get back to my ship. When I arrived at Alpha bay I breathed a sigh of relief when the Swift came into view. As I began to walk towards it the dock captain stepped in front of me.

He spoke, "Mr. Grange. You best come with me to the booth."

As I looked back towards the Swift two armed soldiers walked around from behind her. The Captain closed the door to the deck observation booth behind him.

Again he spoke, "They have been there for the last hour Mr. Grange. I thought it strange and then I heard there was something going down at Alpha mall. My brother lives just off the main hall and he called me saying there were hundreds and hundreds of armed Grid troopers blocking off the exits. His comm went dead as he was talking."

I replied, "I think McKinzey is arresting us all. I can only guess that it is some kind of power play on his part. His speech earlier was a beacon that he had something in the works. I’m wishing we had just stayed on our ships."

The Captain responded, "Hmm. Politicians. I would imagine they will be looking for you soon Sir. I can get you out on a cargo hauler to Amerex in the next 20 minutes if you feel the need to go. I have a niece that is a cargo inspector. She can slip you aboard."

I thought for a moment before responding. "No. You have already risked enough Jeff. I know I’ve only said thank you before with credits, but this time it’s personal. You are a patriot Jeff… and a friend. If I do need to make my way off the Grid I know where to find you. Until that time I don’t want you to get caught up in whatever this is. And take care Jeff; I wonder if we might soon be wishing we had the Milgari back."

I slipped out of the dock captain’s observation booth and headed for Doris and the Martool Mining office. As I turned the corner to the hallway I stopped, a squad of Assault Marines were positioned just outside her door. Doris was in handcuffs and was being questioned by what I could only guess were SCore agents that McKinzey had sent her way.

I hesitated as to what to do next. I had two options. I could return to Alpha bay and enlist Jeff’s help in being smuggled off the Grid or I could make my way to the Colonel’s researchers. I chose the latter.

I held my head low as I moved through the busy hallways towards our clandestine offices. I had reached the halfway point in my journey when a hand grasped my shoulder. I stopped cold.

A quiet voice spoke in a low tone. "Mr. Grange. I work for Jeff on the docks. He sent me to give you a message. The packages you would be interested in are being loaded onto shuttles and taken out to transports as we speak. He thought you would want to know Sir."

I replied, "Packages?"

The man replied as he released his grip, "Your associates Sir."

When I turned I only caught a glimpse of a young man disappearing into the crowded hall. I turned and continued my walk I thought about what he had said. My associates, the Colonel, the Ghouls, the Admiral and his men, were all being moved onto transports. The situation was only growing worse.

As I proceeded I came across a novelty store and ducked inside as two soldiers made their way down the hall towards me. I was in need of a disguise. When I emerged from the shop several minutes later I had a new look. The big plastic glasses with the giant nose and mustache covered my face while a ball-cap with a fake pony-tail hanging out the back covered my head. In my casual clothes I looked like any other dufus who was out celebrating the good news.

When I arrived at the research offices two of the Colonel’s Marines stood in business suits just inside the door.

One of the men grabbed me by the arm. "Sorry, this is restricted company area. Only employees are allowed."

I took off my disguise to which I received a hardy laugh.

I spoke, "Sorry guys, but we have a big problem. Who is in command here?"

The Marine pointed towards a door. "Sorry Sir. Your getup has you pegged as a definite Civi. Major Chambers is just through the door. She is the officer of the day."

When I entered the room the Major came to greet me. "Glad to see you this morning Sir. Things are in a bit of an uproar at the moment. Several of our ops haven’t reported in this morning. They were heading over to the event at the mall to speak with the Colonel."

I replied, "They won’t be back Major. McKinzey used the event to round up most of our people. I was just told that they were being herded onto shuttles that were taking them to transports. I think McKinzey wants to take our fleet, but I’m only speculating as to his motives."

The Major replied, "Sir, the President’s advisors that we have been tailing met with a Durian this morning. It was the first one we have seen on the Grid in a while. An operative on the docks clued us in to his arrival; it was in a sealed shipping container Sir. The inspector received a credit transfer of 650 credits to turn his back on it."

"We almost lost the Durian in the halls with all the commotion. The meeting with the Durian would have gone unseen except for the advisor’s sloppy attempt at slipping away after their meeting. We had already identified him as a Milgari collaborator. It looks like McKinzey may be involved with the Durians Sir. That is not a good development."

I replied, "Do we have access to the Alpha bay monitors? I would like to know where those transports may be headed and to see what their intentions may be with our fleet."

The Major waved me over to a console and began to type on the keyboard. "Looks like the bay cameras are off Sir. They don't want anyone seeing what is going on. But I have a little trick up my sleeve and... there. I patched into the video feeds from four of the surrounding businesses, three restaurants and a bar. They all have cameras watching the ships coming and going."

I took a look at the images the Major had on the screen. "That should be one of the shuttles right there Major. Do we have any way to track the transponder?"

The Major again typed into the keyboard. "Yes Sir. There are a number of shipping companies that track incoming and outgoing transponders. That shuttle is AX1333 Sir. If the transport they are going to is within range we will know where they are."

"I'm seeing the transponders of about a dozen transports out there. Eight of them are in the same location. Let's see... AT447 has a 30,000 person capacity. It would appear that ship cluster at 237.41.23 is where our boys are being taken Sir. AT447 is leased by the Grid military."

I patted the Major on the shoulder. "Thank you Major. At least we know where they are should we need to attempt a rescue."

I continued, "You have the coordinates of our ships. Can you tell me if any transponders are showing in that area?"

The Major punched in the location of our ships and replied, "Yes Sir. It looks like we have about 40 Grid military vessels closing on that position. How many people do we have aboard those ships Sir?"

I sighed as I replied, "None Major. I ordered shutdowns and had all personnel shuttled to the Grid for the celebrations. In retrospect that probably wasn't a good move."

The Major paused and replied, "We have the link codes for those ships Sir. We could give them orders from here. That is, until someone figures out what is going on. We could give them way-points and turn on the image projectors. If the Grid boys can't see them we might be able to keep them hidden. Worst case we have the final destination be back at Jarhead and the Suppressor."

I took a half a step back and looked at the Major. "Chambers! That is brilliant! Punch those numbers in now. I don't want McKinzey and his boys getting their hands on our tech, especially if they are tied up with the Durians."

I turned and called over one of the Admiral's men who had joined our clandestine force. "Rickers. Get me a list of our manpower in these offices. And Major, see if you can get any headcounts on those shuttles. I want to know how many of our people are still on this station. Not everyone was heading to that party on the mall."

"We might be able to pull in a few more bodies if we can get to them before McKinzey does. The more we have, the better our chances of figuring our way out of this. Most of our meat-grinders are heading out on those shuttles. This is where you thinkers earn your pay!"

Rickers returned with a headcount of 76 spooks and 47 field agents. Our best guess was that several thousand of our assault troops and pilots were dispersed amongst the population with their families. We would need as many of them as we could round up if we wanted to conduct any type of large scale operation.

I continued, "And Major. Start breaking your people into planning teams. We need ideas. Drop the surveillance down to about 20% of normal activity and have everyone else in the field rounding up our remaining people. Let's get some plans on the table!"

The next several hours were spent attempting to bring in every Defiant citizen we could find. Several of our team members dedicated their efforts to looping camera footage of the cameras in the main halls. SCore had access to images from most of the ship. Our boys worked to hide our people moving about. By the time the afternoon ended an additional 89 personnel had been pulled into our offices.

Lieutenant Whipman spoke, "Sir. SCore has figured out our camera trick. We have been blocked from their systems. We should not bring anyone else to this location. I would suggest taking them somewhere out of the way such as the warehouse space we have in Beta section. We have emergency rations there that would last a hundred people about a month. We have another similar location in Gamma."

I thanked the Lieutenant and concurred with his recommendation. Any additional personnel would be taken to the Beta warehouse until such time as we had a plan.

I consulted Whipman, "So, are we stuck in here or are there ways to move around the station without being seen?"

Whipman replied, "We mapped out the areas where cameras are not available or have been offline for a while. Some sections they don't care about as crimes around them are rare. Kappa is a good example. It is primarily used by the military and they don't especially like being spied upon. So, if a camera goes down in Kappa it stays down. I believe there are only three left working in that section."

Whipman continued, "We can traverse about 40% of the area on the station without camera risk, but there are still patrols and of course the video monitors displaying the news. I am certain they will make use of the public to try to round people up. I'm curious as to what load of lies they will toss out to raise suspicion."

Several hours later, just as had been predicted, the images of top Defiant personnel who were unaccounted for began to show on the evening news. Flash bulletins noted that they were wanted for questioning about possible acts of sedition. Our task of winning our freedom had become that much more difficult to accomplish.

Of our Defender crews Maria Rodriguez was the only other one to make it to the offices. She joined the group I was in, discussing options for what we might do.

Maria spoke, "OK, we know the fleet has slipped away so, how do we get off this place and back to our ships? We have connections in Alpha bay, but they can't move several hundred people through there. We need to get to our ships. And we will need a ship to do that. If you ask me, we are just burning down hours sitting here. We need to take action!"

I replied, "Well, maybe we assign a team to take on that task. Maria, we'll make you the lead. Go pull a half-dozen others from the other groups and get to planning how we might take that task on."

A hand was raised by a Marine Sergeant sitting across the table. "Sir, Diane York. I have another option to consider. What if we take over a critical area of the Grid and use that to bargain our way off of here?"

York continued, "We could take control of one or more of the hydrogen power plants and trade their safe return for our freedom. There are usually only a dozen or so guards on duty at any plant. I grew up in the main Kappa plant Sir. My father retired from there after 47 years of service. I snuck around in just about every cubbyhole in the place as a kid. I believe I could plan an assault if we can get the latest floor diagrams. I would have a hard time believing they have changed much since then."

I replied, "Sergeant York? Wasn't there a war hero named that in the archives?"

York responded, "Yes Sir. My grandfather was a Marine sergeant so I got that story growing up. He was a meat-grinder like me Sir. Lost half of his right leg in the 40th war, but he kept fighting and came home a survivor. Of the 257 crewmen on the destroyer he was assigned to, the Magnificent, only 16 returned. They took down two Milgari cruisers in that battle. I ate those stories up as a kid. Those stories brought me to the Marines Sir."